


lost and found

by JkWriter



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Foster Care, Minor Character Death, Parent Tony Stark, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-02-28 14:54:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18758698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JkWriter/pseuds/JkWriter
Summary: harley keener lost his family and gained one in the process





	1. Chapter 1

**MAY 3, 2017**

Rose Hill was a small town. There was no room for group homes or run-down and forgotten orphanages. Every couple of years the Woods’ family would foster a few children, never more than two. Harley just so happened to lose his life a mere three months after they had gotten another child in their care. “We can swap one of ‘em out,” Michael Woods offered after the funeral. Harley thought about Jefferson Parks in his history class and how he went from a scared kid to a confident trash-talker in the two years he’s lived with the Woods. He thought about the little kid always hiding behind April Woods’ skirt at Church and how he said “hi” to Harley for the first time two weeks ago. Harley didn’t even know his name yet. 

“Nah, those kids need y’all more. I’ll figure something out.” 

That was three days ago. Three days of lying in bed because that’s what people who lost everything were supposed to do, right? Three days spent in a motel room with some extended family member he hadn’t seen since he was eleven who didn’t have the means or desire to take care of him after this. Three days of not knowing where he was going to go when Great Aunt Carrie finally decided to head back home to some no-name backwoods town that was even smaller than Rose Hill. Harley wished he had picked up some of his tech before leaving the workshop. He wouldn’t be having this conversation if he was too busy adjusting his repulsor system. 

Carrie sat down on the edge of his bed. “Social Workers in the lobby. She wants to talk to you,” she said quietly. She spoke like she was scared loud noises would cause what little control Harley had to break. 

“‘Course she does,” Harley mumbled. The blanket was pulled up and over his head. Carrie had gone between rubbing his back and setting her hand down where Harley’s head was. Harley had no doubt that if the covers were down she’d be running her fingers through his hair just like his mama used to do when he was upset. He wanted comfort but also wanted his mama to give it. That wasn’t an option anymore. 

“You need to get up, kid. She wants to talk ‘bout your future.” 

“I don’t have one.“ Harley was being dramatic and he knew it, but what else was he supposed to do? He watched his whole life go up in flames and there was nothing he could do to stop it. ‘Sides, being a little dramatic never hurt anyone. 

“Sure you do, it’s just a little different.” If a little different meant being forced to move away from home because his mother was dead and his father was a deadbeat who wouldn’t answer the phone. “Jus’ go talk to her.” She stood up and moved away from the bed. Harley was already starting to mourn the comfort that had been taken away. “She wants to help.” ‘Course she wanted to help. That’s all the Social Worker has said since walking into his room at the hospital. _“I want to help.”_ which roughly translated to _“I want to rip you away from everything you know because you’re still a minor and can’t take care of yourself.”_ The fact that Harley has taken care of himself and Adaline every night their mama worked late didn’t matter to the state. They just saw him as a little kid who needed to be protected. 

“Fine,” he snapped and threw the blanket off of himself. It wasn’t fair on old Aunt Carrie, she had been nothing but kind to him since getting in town last week, but Harley just lost everything he cared about. He was allowed to be upset and act impulsively because of it. “But I ain’t gonna listen to her.”

“And that’s fine, but you at least needa figure out what you’re gonna do.”

“There’s nothin’ to do, my life’s over.” 

“Don’t say that, Harley. Your life ain’t over yet.” 

Harley didn’t have a witty comeback or self-deprecating joke to throw at her. The gravity of the situation was starting to weigh down on him. His whole life was in Rose Hill. He was born here, spent the first fifteen years of his life here, and now he was going to be forced to leave because no one wanted to watch after the Keener kid. Maybe Adaline would have had better luck, she always was the favorite Keener. Everyone in town was always tripping over themselves to spoil little Adaline Keener, Harley included. He would have done anything for his little sister. His anything wasn’t enough. He couldn’t even get into the house, not with Mr. Wilkins down the road holding him back. “I can save her!” Harley had said, but then Adaline had stopped screaming and he collapsed. 

The fire department said they were gone before he even got out of the workshop. Grease fires are nasty, they said. They grow quicker with water, and someone in that house had tried to douse it. 

Instead of saving the house, they signed their death certificate. 

Maybe if Harley didn’t spend so much time tinkering away at machines that served no purpose, he woulda been inside to save his family. He knew about grease fires. He could have told them not to throw on water. He could have done something, anything, but he did nothing because he was outside by himself working on a system that wasn’t even guaranteed to work. 

“Harley?” Carrie was back on the bed and rubbing Harley’s back. When did he sit up? Why was the room spinning? “Harley, you need to come back to me.” What was she saying? Harley was right here. 

_Adaline was screaming._

He hadn’t gone anywhere. 

_Mr. Wilkins grabbed onto Harley. “You can’t run in there!”_

He was just having a bit of trouble breathing.

_“Yes I can, Adaline needs me!” Harley twisted and pulled but Mr. Wilkins didn’t let go._

Was this a panic attack? 

_“Harley. Harley, you need to wait for the fire department.” Mr. Wilkins was a construction worker. He spent his days handling heavy equipment and machinery. A squirming teen was nothing for him. Harley kept trying._

Harley read about panic attacks after sending Tony Stark into one. They were painful, that’s what the book said. Harley wasn’t hurting.

_“THEY’RE GONNA BE TOO LATE!”_

His head was pounding and his body was aching but he wasn’t hurting.

_Adaline stopped screaming._

Unless this is what hurting felt like. He never lost anyone before. His father walked out on them but he hadn’t been a dad for years by that point. Sometimes, someone he knew in town died but Harley was never close to them. He was always in the background, there but never getting attached. Harley always knew he’d be leaving Rose Hill and didn’t want to make it harder than it needed to be. The only attachments he had were to his mom and sister and now they were gone.

Gone. His family was gone. The dad who didn’t want him, the mom and sister who couldn’t escape, the man who changed his life in a single night. All of them left and Harley was alone because no one in town cared enough to let him in their lives. 

“Deep breaths. That’s it, Harley. Look at me.” Harley did and she exaggerated her breathing. Harley matched it. When she breathed in, he did. He held it until she breathed out. In for two, hold for four, and out for six. “There you go.” 

“S...sorry,” he said, dropping her arm. He didn’t know he had grabbed on to her. 

“You don’t need to apologize. Your mama used to get like that when she was little.” 

“Oh.” 

“You ready to get up now?” He wasn’t, but he nodded. “Alright, I’m gonna step out and give you some privacy. Come meet us in the lobby when you’re ready, okay?” 

“‘Kay.” He stayed in bed until she left and the door shut quietly behind her. Even then he didn’t get up, not right away. Instead, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stared down at the stained carpet. Adaline liked using the carpet cleaner every time one of Harley’s experiments caused a mess. She liked seeing it go from a stained mess to look almost good as new. Harley wondered if he’d ever look new again or if the stain of this loss would hover over him forever. 

The thought was a bit too poetic for him. 

He was up and dressed in ten minutes. Carrie had told him last night to shower before meeting with the Social Worker. Washing seemed like too much work right now. He put on clothes that weren’t terribly dirty, pulled on his converse and left the motel room. 

There were only eight rooms in the entire motel. Not many people came through Rose Hill and the entire motel was a gimmick for tourism. They got ten visitors in a good year. The lobby was connected to the diner next door. He found Carrie and the Social Worker sitting in a booth by the front door. 

“Ah, Harley, I’m glad to see you’re doing alright.” Harley shrugged and sat next to Carrie. The Social Worker, Harley looked at the name tag pinned to her shirt, “Donna” wasn’t put off by his silence. She smiled at him. He didn’t like how fake she looked. “We need to discuss what’s going to happen over the next few days.” 

“Okay,” Harley said when Donna stared at him. Under the table, he fiddled with Adaline’s watch. She left it in the workshop after hearing the Tony Stark had used it. Harley guessed she wanted it to be displayed. Now it was just a reminder of the past.

“We contacted your father,” Donna said. Harley looked up. They actually managed to find him? Harley had spent the past ten years looking. “Do you have any other family who would be able to watch over you?” She didn’t say it, but Harley knew how that conversation had gone. Harley’s dad was a deadbeat who ran out on his family. The missed phone calls didn’t surprise him then and they don’t surprise him now. 

“No.” 

“Did your mother have any friends who were supposed to take care of you should something happen?” 

“No,” Harley repeated. 

“Okay, that’s fine. Not everyone plans for this. If there’s no one else we could call,” Harley thinks about a red and gold suit. He doesn’t say anything because no one in town believed him when he talked about his Tony Stark experience, even with the upgraded workshop. A randomly appointed Social Worker wouldn’t either, and if she did Tony probably didn’t even remember him. Tony Stark met thousands of people every year. Harley wasn’t special, they weren’t connected like eleven-year-old Harley had said. “You can pick up any belongings from the land you wish to take with you tonight. There are a few options from there. We could look into foster care, you might not immediately get placed with a family but your consideration can begin. There’s also state-funded orphanages and group homes,” she said. She was still smiling like this wasn’t the worst experience of Harley’s life. 

All of the options sounded horrible. Harley would much rather live by himself until he turned eighteen.

“I don’t care, whatever’s easiest.” 

“I’ll look into foster families in the area. Until I find a suitable one I think you would do best in a group home.” 

“Sounds fine with me.” Harley tapped his fingers against the table. “Is there anything else or can I go home and pack?” 

“You can go home and gather your belongings. I recommend a small suitcase and a backpack. If you need to borrow either I have one of each in my car.” 

“I’m fine, I kept most of my stuff in the workshop.” 

“Alright. I’ll go over the rest of the process with your Aunt Carrie, she can-”

Harley didn’t stick around. He didn’t want to hear about Aunt Carrie and how she was so upset she couldn’t look after him but knew he’d find a good home. That’s not how family worked in Rose Hill. 

The motel was only two miles from his house. Harley had taken the walk from his house to town hundreds of times over the years. He knew all the shortcuts, had permission to cut across fields and had a bike stashed away by his mailbox. He wouldn’t be needing that anymore, but maybe he could take it apart to get material for the road. 

The walk was silent. Harley used to live for these quiet moments when it was just himself and his thoughts. His best ideas came when the wind was soft and the sounds of nearby farm animals followed him home. Today he was just bombarded with the memory of his family. The mom who worked so hard to provide for her children and paid with her life. The sister who was so young and had so much to live for. It wasn’t fair. They shouldn’t have been the ones taken. It should have been him. He wasn’t going anywhere, certainly not now. 

There was a pile of smoking ashes where his house used to be. Harley tried not to look at all the flowers and teddy bears left for his mama and sister. It seemed as though the whole town had come out to pay their respects. Flowers lined the driveway and Harley had to step over them to get to the garage. 

Everything was exactly like he left it. Harley half-expected someone to try and loot it since no one was home to guard it. Everything was in place from the Mustang to the perfected potato gun. The repulsor glove he had been working on when the fire broke out was still sitting on the table. The schematics were pinned to the wall above his workstation. Harley had spent hours of his life sitting in here fiddling with electronics and listening to Adaline talk about everything under the sun. How was he supposed to pack it in a suitcase and leave? What was going to happen to everything left behind? Would it be sold in the estate auction? Harley hadn’t spoken to Tony in years, but he doubted the Mechanic would want his tech being auctioned off like that. Harley ripped one of the old schematics off the wall and flipped it over. He picked up a pink sharpie that definitely belonged to Adaline and started writing:

**~~Tony, Mr. Stark, Iron Man~~ Mechanic, **

**It’s been a while. Sorry I kinda dropped off the face of the planet. I just got tired writing to someone who didn’t bother to respond, ya know? Maybe things would have been different had the Mechanic not pretended I didn’t exist after I did my part but shit happens, people leave and there’s no need to be a pussy about it, right? This isn’t about that. That’s a whole other letter that’ll probably end up being a couple pages long and very angry. I’m gonna try and keep this one short and sweet.**  
Essentially, I’ve got to leave Rose Hill. Something happened with my mama and sister and they’re sending me to a home. I’m gonna take what I can, but I can’t pack up the whole workshop. I don’t know if there’s anything in there you would want (maybe the Mustang. It’s a bit disassembled right now. It was a work in progress I guess I won’t get to finish but it runs I promise.) but if you do you’ve got until July 15th. That’s when they’re gonna do the estate auction. The house burnt down but there’s potato guns to sell, and some other things I was working on.  
Just, come get it if you want. I don’t care.  
—Harley Keener 

He dropped the sharpie and read the letter. The beginning could have been nicer, but Harley was allowed to be pissed at Tony Stark for forgetting him after the Mandarin situation. He cared until Harley wasn’t useful anymore and then he sent him some tech and left. All of Harley’s letters went unanswered. He had no doubt this would be the same but he could at least say he tried. He set it to the side. He could mail it out before leaving town. Harley had something bigger to focus on right now. 

The workshop was a complete disaster. Asides from the ripped apart Mustang there were cables running everywhere and varying levels of potentially dangerous weapons lining the walls. Harley tapped the space bar of the computer until it buzzed to life. 

“Hey, Kevy you there?” 

“Yes, Harley?” The A.I. was his proudest achievement. After the Mandarin incident, a bit of J.A.R.V.I.S.’ code stayed on Harley’s computer. He used it as a base to construct his own A.I. and while Kevy wasn’t nearly as advanced as J.A.R.V.I.S. it worked and grew every day. Harley wouldn’t be able to take the computer, but he could take apart the tower and monitor. All he really needed was the drives that held Kevy’s coding but having the extra pieces would help when it came to reassembling a temporary workshop. 

“I’ve got less than twenty-four hours to pack the workshop.” 

“Would you like music or direction?” 

“Both,” Harley said. His suitcase was starting to fall apart from years of being used to transport pieces of metal from the junkyard to his house but it was all he had and he didn’t want to use what Donna had offered. He laid it on the workbench. 

“I recommend starting with the repulsors,” the A.I. said. “They are extremely dangerous and could cause quite a bit of destruction if in the wrong hands.” 

“Kind of why I started building them.” The teen angst was strong in him and since he couldn’t get his aggression out in any healthy ways he built weapons of mass destruction. It sounded better in Harley’s head but by the time someone said anything the first prototype was halfway finished. At that point, he had no reason not to finish. “How else am I supposed to destroy my workshop in a fit of anger?” 

“I recommend not causing any damage to the property.” 

“You say that,” Harley slipped his hand into the repulsor. “But it’s not as fun as this.” He had tested different power sources. Nothing he tried was perfect and the connection had to remain constant but it fired. Once. Twice. He kept firing at the wall until there was a hole leading into the workshop. Harley lowered his hand. “Repulsors working without an arc reactor, write that down.” 

“Should I call for assistance?” 

“Why?” Harley took off the repulsor and disconnected it from the power source. He waited until it powered itself down to lie it in the suitcase. He didn’t think it was the best way to transport it but it was all he had. “We’re leaving tomorrow, new owners can deal with the mess.” 

“Allow me to clarify, do you need help? These levels of destruction align with the second stage of grief.” 

“I’m not grieving,” Harley muttered. He unpinned the schematics and rolled them up to stick in the suitcase. Harley doubted anyone in town would be able to follow them but it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn’t need an angry Tony Stark hunting him down because he decided to mimic his tech. 

“Of course not. Shall I resume the music?

“Shoulda never stopped in the first place.” 

—

**JUNE 14, 2017**

Tony Stark received a lot of fan mail. Between being Iron Man and Tony Stark there were hundreds of thousands of letters and packages and it was impossible to respond to them all so he chose not to respond to any. He still read them, or at least the ones Happy picked out, and often times he’d be spotted wearing a t-shirt one of his fans sent him so it wasn’t like they all went unopened. Just, most of them. 

“This is so cool,” Peter Parker said. “People send you stuff and you get to keep it?” 

Tony only slightly regretted letting the kid into his lab on mail day. On one hand, it was nice seeing how excited Peter was about the concept of fan mail, on the other he was insisting on opening every letter before Happy had a chance to screen them. F.R.I.D.A.Y. calculated there was a ninety-nine percent chance that Peter’s advanced healing would protect him from any biological warfare that might have wormed its way into the stack of mail. There was still a one percent chance Tony was going to hate himself should this go south. 

“A lot of it gets donated,” Tony said. “If you find anything you like feel free to keep it.” 

“Sweet.” Something crashed against the ground. “It wasn’t me.” Tony didn’t know what Peter had done and he didn’t want to know. Sometimes it was best not knowing with that kid. 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., lemme know if he’s about to kill himself.” 

“I’ll be fine.” Another package crashed to the floor. “I meant for that to happen.” 

“Sure you did.” 

“Accidents happen, Mr. Stark. Oh! Look at this drawing! It’s the Avengers. Kinda sad since the Avengers aren’t really the Avengers anymore,” Tony could have gone without the reminder that everything fell apart. “but it’s still really good. You should hang it up. You should make a wall for fanart!” Yeah, only slightly regretting it. 

“I’ll tell Happy to work on that.” Tony had F.R.I.D.A.Y. do another scan of Peter for the Iron Spider suit. “Anything else interesting?” 

“More drawings. I’m gonna make a separate pile for art so it’s easier to find them for the wall. Should I sort out Avengers art? I mean, I know they’re not really a thing right now but when everyone gets back together you’ll already have the art on the wall if I keep them together. Or there could be two walls.” Peter nodded like he solved all of the world’s problems. Maybe to him, this was the biggest problem. Tony hoped so, the kid didn’t deserve having the worst part of the world shoved on him. “Can I have this t-shirt? I wanna take this t-shirt.” Tony was impressed with how quickly the teen’s attention shifted from one thing to another. He already moved on from the shirt was opening another envelope. “Woah, this is cool.”

“What is it?” 

“Schematics.” Peter flipped the paper over. “Who’s Harley Keener?” 

Tony froze. He looked over to Peter who was reading a letter. It had to be a coincidence, surely there was more than one Harley Keener in the world. 

“Can you repeat that?” 

“Harley Keener. He sounds kinda angry, what’d you do to piss him off?” Or maybe there was just one. 

Tony crossed the lab. “Where’s the letter from?” 

“Uh,” 

“State. City. Where?”

“Rose Hill, Tennessee. Why? Who’s Harley?” 

Tony plucked the letter from Peter. It was on the back of a schematic for a hand repulsor. The design was good, Tony was proud of the kid for how far he’s come from potato guns. The actual content of the letter was concerning. A home? What happened that prevented his mother from taking care of him? Tony had a feeling he knew but prayed he was wrong.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., look up deaths in Rose Hill, Tennessee from the last month.” 

“Two reported deaths on April 27. Brianna and Adaline Keener were both killed in a house fire.” 

“Shit. Where’s Harley?” 

“Records for Harley Keener end after funeral announcements.” 

“Shit,” Tony repeated. He reread the letter. 

“Mr. Stark?” Peter asked. Tony looked over. Peter was fifteen. Harley should be fifteen. The two would get along, maybe. At the very least Harley would trust Peter, at least more than he’d trust Tony.

“You ever been to Tennessee?” 

“I’ve only been out of the city once and that was to go to Germany.” 

“Better call Aunt May and tell her it’s gonna be a long weekend, we got a tiny genius to find.” 

“Oh, cool,” Peter said. He started to send a text but stopped. “Wait who exactly are we finding?”


	2. Chapter 2

**JUNE 21, 2017**

Did murder go against his non-existent moral code? Harley used to look up to the Avengers and if he went by their moral code than there was a lot more gray. Every one of them had killed someone at some point, except maybe Spider-Man but Harley wasn’t sure if the Queens hero was an actual Avenger or a vigilante who sometimes showed up to Avenger related events like the airport in Germany. Where was he? Right, murder. Sure, Ty wasn’t a Red Skull or Whiplash, but he was a massive prick with the ego to match. Harley might not murder him now but they were going to be enemies. Their origin story was practically writing itself. 

“Why the hell are you so weird?” 

Maybe Harley wouldn’t be the hero but the villain changed by his time as a foster child who lost everything. “I don’t know. Why the hell are you such an idiot?” A hero who used petty insults instead of his fists. 

“Idiot? I thought you were smart.” Ty picked up Harley’s copy of Bruce Banner’s biography and dropped it onto the floor. Harley reminded himself to take deep breaths. It’d be so easy to put on the repulsor and blast Ty but there was no way the teen would survive that and Harley couldn’t even keep it on without a constant power source. “Make up something original.”

“I would,” Harley said as he turned to chair to face Ty. “But then you wouldn’t understand and it’s not fun insulting someone who doesn’t get they’re being insulted.” 

“You think you’re better than me, you think you’re better than all of us because you’re smart and have your weird as fuck gadgets. Lemme tell you something, Harley.” Ty grabbed onto the collar of Harley’s shirt and yanked him so they were standing face to face. Harley shrunk back. He knew he’d lose in a fight against Ty. “You ain’t better than any of us. You might’ve had a future once, but no one cares about us here. You’re gonna end up broke and on the streets like the rest of us.” 

“Weird flex but go off I guess,” Harley said. It wasn’t the right thing because Ty dropped Harley. He tried to catch himself which resulted in bringing his lamp down with him. 

“Being smart ain’t enough to get out of here,” Ty spat. He swung around and stomped out of the room. Harley stayed on the floor. The floor was nice. It was comfy, more so than his bed. A nap sounded nice. He could take a nap. 

_“Harley, mama says she ain’t waking you up if you fall asleep again.”_

Harley and Adaline used to take naps on the floor of Adaline’s room. It was supposed to just be Adaline but sometimes Harley would fall asleep telling her a story. 

_“Tell me the Mechanic story.”_

_“Again? That’s the third time this week.”_

_“I know,” Adaline said. She smiled and Harley knew he’d tell her the story no matter what she said. “But it’s got you in it. So it’s my favorite.”_

_“It was Christmas, 2013.”_

“Harley, might I suggest getting off the floor.” 

He jumped at the unprompted A.I. which really Harley should have expected it. One of the first things he did was use his emergency money to get a laptop and replace the drives with his own from home. Kevy liked to interrupt Harley’s depressing moments and apparently taking a nap on the floor fueled by the memories of his dead sister counted as a depressing moment. Who knew?

Harley hummed. “Give me one good reason and I’ll consider it.” 

“Lying on the floor for extended periods of time without the proper support could cause damage to your body in the long run.” 

Kevy was probably smiling on the inside. The damn A.I. thought he had Harley. “Ha, jokes on you, I don’t care about my body. Bring on the death,” he deadpanned. 

“Should I call for help?” 

“Kevy, you’re an A.I. with unlimited access to the internet.” Harley pushed himself up. He sat so his back was against the bed and he was facing the desk. “Google some memes and lemme live my depressing life in peace.” 

“Adding memes to my searchable database. To quote doge: such sadness, very death, many tears, wow.” Harley could die happy. Adaline would have loved this. She is, was, Harley reminded himself, always telling him to add humor into Kevy’s coding. Harley wanted to but coding wasn’t his strong suit. Adaline used to say she was going to learn and help him improve Kevy.

She never got the chance to. It wasn’t fair. 

“Kevy,” Harley said, interrupting his own train of thought. “you’re the best A.I. there is. J.A.R.V.I.S. has nothing on you.” 

“J.A.R.V.I.S. is no longer a functioning A.I. after the Ultron attack of 2015.”

“It was an expression, Kevy.”

“Should I add...Incoming individual, automatic shutdown engaged.” 

“What? No, you can’t do that. You still have to end me,” Harley said as he started to push himself off the floor. The laptop turned itself off as Kate walked into his room. 

She looked at Harley half on the ground. “Are you talking to yourself again?” 

Harley liked Kate. She was the nicest of the older kids living here. She hated Ty as much as, if not more, than Harley did. He didn’t know what Ty had done to get on her bad side but after tagging along to one of her self defense classes and seeing what she could do Harley almost felt bad for him. 

“All the great geniuses do. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him, but Tony Stark doesn’t know how to shut up,” he said to her. The corner of her mouth quirked up into a smile. 

“Tony Stark, huh? I heard he was in Rose Hill four years ago. That’s where you’re from, right?” It wasn’t really a question. Kate already knew the answer so Harley nodded. “Is that when you stole his tech?”

Harley choked on air. “I haven’t stolen anything and I’m quite offended you’ve asked.” Kate stared at him. She knew he was lying. How did she know he was lying? Harley hadn’t said anything about his escapades with Tony Stark. Unless he talked in his sleep but if that’s the case then she was breaking into his room while he slept to watch him sleep which was more concerning than his maybe stolen tech. “I didn’t even know he was there until he already left,” he said. Harley used his bed to help finish pulling himself up. His side hurt where he had fallen on the lamp. The lamp didn’t break which was good. Harley’s foster parents were interesting (i.e. garbage) individuals and he wasn’t sure how they’d react to him actually breaking something. It was bad enough he kept taking appliances apart but they couldn’t prove it was him despite their attempts.

“So you’re not building a replica of the Iron Man suit?” Kate asked. She crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. Harley had a few options. He could tell the truth, own up to his Tony Stark adventure and maybe get some advice on what he should do with his repulsors (Kate was smart and Harley had no doubt she’d be able to help him figure out a permanent power source) or he could continue lying and dig himself into a deeper hole. 

“Of course not. No one knows how Tony Stark did it. ‘Sides, I don’t have an arc reactor. Even if I wanted to build it I couldn’t.” Harley was never good at making split-second decisions.

“Except you’re a child genius.” Kate uncrossed her arms and stepped further into his room. She looked around like their foster parents did, inspecting for anything out of the ordinary that could be used as an excuse for punishment. Only she didn’t yell at him. “One who could easily build this.” She lifted the framed picture of George Washington that Harley used to hide the repulsor schematics. It was the best place he could hide them where they could still be easily viewed when he was sitting at the desk and working on the repulsor. 

Harley looked at Kate and then the schematics. “I ain’t ever seen that before in my life.” His name was written in the corner. Kate looked right at it and back to Harley.

“Stop trying to pretend you’re innocent. I’m not gonna say anything to Keith and Alice if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Harley huffed and crossed his arms. “I’m not scared of Keith and Alice.” 

“‘Course not, but they pay for the internet which I’m guessing is pretty important to what you’re doing.” 

Harley gave in. “It’s not too important, just makes things easier,” he said.“I don’t need it to look at the Iron Man suit. I had a couple of days to get familiar with it.” 

“You did meet him in Rose Hill.” She put the painting back over the schematics. Harley walked to the closet where he kept the repulsor locked in his suitcase. 

“I helped him stop the Mandarin. Sort of. As much as an eleven-year-old kid can help a superhero. It gave me a chance to study his armor and start working on this.” He put the repulsor on and held his arm out to Kate. She grabbed hold and turned it over to look at the repulsor. “It’s functional, but only when it’s connected to a permanent power source.” 

“And you haven’t built an arc reactor yet,” she said. Harley nodded. “If you had the funding, do you think you could?” She ran her fingers down the repulsor. It was powered down but Harley still worried something would set it off. 

“I mean, maybe. It’s not easy. I tried back in Rose Hill but materials are expensive and the designs hard to replicate. Stark really didn’t want this getting into the wrong hands. I’ve been trying to hack SI for a couple of months but that’s out of my expertise.” 

“Well, luckily for you I didn’t get banned from the computer lab at school for nothing.” Harley gaped at her as she pulled. She shrugged. “My mom’s dead and before he was caught my dad was off doing illegal arms trading instead of hosting family dinners. I needed a hobby.” 

“You taught yourself to hack?” 

“To a certain extent,” she tapped on the repulsor. “For example, I wouldn’t be able to get into this but SI is a maybe. I can’t promise I’ll find the files but I can try.” 

“Why?” Harley asked. He pulled the repulsor off and set it on the desk. If anyone came by he could play it off as being a fake replica of the Iron Man gauntlet. It wouldn’t help his situation of being the biggest loser here but he could deal with the teasing from Ty if it meant keeping the repulsor out of his hands.

“Because,” Kate said as she sat on Harley’s bed. “I hate this place just as much as you. And hey, maybe if we get something going Tony Stark’ll notice and see the shit conditions we’re forced to live in.” 

“Tony Stark doesn’t care about me.” 

“I doubt that, how else would you have gotten the materials to make that?”

“If he cared he woulda responded to my letters.” 

“See, that’s the problem. You sent Tony Stark, technical genius, a letter. Have you tried Twitter?” 

Harley wondered if now was a good time to bring up how in the middle of nowhere Rose Hill is. It’s not like Rose Hill didn’t have internet, it just sucked. It took him months to get Kevy connected the first time. “Just, trust me, he doesn’t care,” he said instead. It wasn’t a lie, Harley believed it. Tony Stark stopped caring the minute he got what he wanted. 

“Fine, he doesn’t care about you, but he’ll care about someone using his technology. At the very least it’ll get you out of here.” 

“And in jail?”

“I heard Stark’s taking on interns these days. Maybe he’ll be impressed and sponsor you to live in NYC or something.” 

“Doubt it,” Harley said. He turned away from Kate and started rebooting his laptop. 

“Can you be optimistic for once in your life?”

“My family is dead and I’m forced to live in foster care in the middle of Tennessee with no hope for the future. I don’t really see where the optimism is.”

“That’s morbid.” Kate stood behind him. “Linux?” she asked. 

“Yup. I wanted something more secure. Most people don’t know how to use it so I went for it.”

“What are you hiding on your laptop that you needed to use Linux to keep people off?”

“When Tony Stark came to Rose Hill he needed to reboot J.A.R.V.I.S. which meant he needed somewhere to temporarily store his code. I had a pretty garbage computer but Tony gave me an upgrade. I just transferred the leftover code and built my own A.I.” 

“Oh my god, you have a J.A.R.V.I.S.? Weren’t you just complaining about not being able to code? Now you’ve got Linux pulled up and a personal A.I., dude you’re like a tiny Tony Stark. Just angrier but in a puppy sort of way, ya know the non-threatening kind.”

Harley ignored the insult. “I already had the background for Kevy. I built them around J.A.R.V.I.S.’ code. It wasn’t that hard. Just added a self-learning command and they’ve grown on their own.” 

“Jesus. Why’d Stark leave you in Rose Hill?”

“Probably because I was an eleven-year-old punk.” The laptop surged to life. “Kevy, go ahead and scan Kate. You don’t need to shut down when she’s in the room.”

“You have a scanner?”

“One of the gifts Tony Stark left after endangering a kid’s life.”

“You sound pretty salty about Tony Stark but you still write him fan mail.” 

“It’s not fan mail.” Harley faced Kate. “I just let him know what I was working on.”

Kate smiled “Sounds like fan mail to me.”

“I will fight you,” Harley deadpanned. He intended to come off as threatening. It didn’t do anything to take the smile off of Kate’s face. If anything her smile grew. Non-threatening puppy, she said.

“Awe, but Harley, aren’t you from the country? Doesn’t fighting a girl go against all your chivalry laws?”

Oh, Harley was gonna kill her. Screw his moral code. Watch out world, illegal Iron Man was making his debut. 

“Scan complete,” Kevy interjected. She was safe, this time. “Welcome, Katherine Bishop.” 

“Oo, first and last name. That’s fancy.”

“I added in information on everyone here,” Harley said. He pulled the chair that had been forgotten with Ty’s appearance back over and sat down at the desk. “If Kevy gets a chance to scan then he should know who is who based on the descriptions.” 

“Oh? And how did you describe me?” 

_Click. Click. Click._ The only thing Harley didn’t like about Linux was the amount of typing needed for the commands. He pulled up the list of household members and their descriptions. “Scary, likes the color purple, not very threatening but could probably kill a man.” 

“Sounds about right,” Kate said. “Lemme see your laptop. I wanna mess around with Kevy’s coding. Cute name by the way. Does it mean anything?” 

Harley handed the laptop over. “Nope. Adaline, my sister, used to call her betta fish Kevy. I stole the name and it’s been my A.I.’s since.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister. She get sent to a different home?” 

“She uh, she passed away in the fire that killed my mom.”

“Shit, I’m sorry. How are you holding up after that?” 

“Well, I’ve been better. I think I’ve had a few anxiety attacks but I don’t really know what those look like.”

“Fatigue, racing thoughts, hard time breathing.” Harley tilted his head. “Something happened a few years ago and I dealt with some pretty bad anxiety for a while after.” 

“Does it go away?” 

“Not really. Sometimes I still feel like the world’s ending, but it gets easier. I learned to defend myself and it helped. You’ve just gotta find your self-defense classes.”

“I’ve never had a healthy way of coping.” 

“Then build something.” 

_“You’re a Mechanic, right? Why don’t you build something?”_

“When was the last time you worked on your repulsor?” Kate asked. Harley didn’t know. It was before he lost Adaline and his mom. “That answers that.” Kate closed the laptop. “C’ mon, we’re gonna go shopping.” 

“With what money? I’m not exactly loaded here.” Kate leaned forward and grabbed Harley’s hands. She used him to pull herself up. “Kate, what are you doing?” 

“Taking you shopping,” she said tugging on Harley. “I’ve got a weekly allowance from my dad’s estate. I don’t ever spend it on anything, so let’s go blow a couple thousand.” She yanked him up from the chair. 

“What? Oh my lord, Kate, we can’t do that. Keith and Alice’ll be pissed if we bring a bunch of junk back.”

“It’s not gonna be a bunch of junk.” Kate let go of one of Harley’s hands. She kept hold of the other and used it to drag Harley out of his room. “While you were telling me your life story I was looking into your files. You need better encryption by the way. But that’s not the point. We’re gonna go get some stuff to build you another repulsor gauntlet. If we’re gonna catch Tony Stark’s attention might as well go all out.”

“This is a pretty terrible idea. You know that, right? We’re gonna get arrested. Or questioned by the FBI.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Kate, no.”

—

**JUNE 15, 2017**

“Wow, this place is small. And there are cows. Did you see the cows, Mr. Stark? I didn’t know they got so big. Is that a memorial? Where are we going?” 

Peter asked a lot of questions. Tony learned pretty quickly that Peter spent most of his time talking to fill in any awkward silences there might be. He didn’t know what the kid had against silence but he didn’t fight it. Tony appreciated the noise even if it came in the form of a hundred questions a minute. 

“Memorial is for the victims of a Mandarin attack.” 

“Woah, there was a Mandarin attack here? I don’t remember reading about that on the news.” Peter’s was face pressed against the window. This wasn’t even Tony’s car, he had no idea how often it was cleaned. He also knew Peter’s enhanced healing would keep him from catching any illnesses, he had checked with F.R.I.D.A.Y. the second they stepped in the car, so he didn’t stop him. 

“That’s because it was before Killian became the Mandarin,” Tony explained. Peter backed away from the window to watch as Tony pulled up the digital file. “He had to perfect the extremis before he could start using it on people and like any science experiment he had lab rats. Chad Davis just happened to be one of those lab rats.” Tony turned the image to Peter.

“That’s awful,” Peter said. He took the file from Tony and began to flip through the pages. Each page held a different image. Chad Davis, the remains of the explosion, the memorial. “He didn’t ask for this.”

“None of them did, which is why I had to stop it. And Harley helped me do that.” 

“You said he was fifteen.” Peter closed the file and handed it back to Tony. Really it was shoving it into Tony’s arms before he had a chance to say something about being handed thing. In the year they’ve known each other Peter really learned how Tony Stark worked. Tony would have been impressed if he didn’t have questions about where Peter was going with this.

“Yup.” 

“You let a” Peter counted down with fingers. “eleven-year-old help you stop a terrorist.” 

“Look, I never said I made good decisions,” Tony defended. “I gave you a suit, which was a really bad one but at least you’ve got something better than the pajamas you were wearing before.” 

“I liked my first costume.” The extent of liking it probably had something to do with the fact that he made it. Tony knew Peter threw it in the closet and never looked back after he gave him the upgraded suit. 

“No one else did, kid.” 

“Ned liked it.” 

“And does Ted know you’re the one under the mask?” 

“Well, no but-”

“Exactly. If he knew it was you under that flimsy thing he wouldn’t like it.” 

“I think he still would.” 

“Agree to disagree,” Tony said. Peter pouted next to him. It was in these moments that Tony was reminded just how young he was. Was Tony an idiot for bringing a kid to Germany? Yes. Was he an even bigger idiot for letting this kid continue to run around Queens as a masked vigilante? God yes, but Peter was going to whether Tony let him or not. At least with the suit, he was somewhat protected. 

Tony stared out the window as the car turned down a familiar driveway. It had been nearly four years but he still remembered every detail J.A.R.V.I.S. didn’t see. Harley’s house had been small and had a family-vibe. Now it was nothing more than a pile of ash. 

“Hey, uh, Mr. Stark? I think he fixed the schematics.” 

Tony followed Peter’s eye. The shed, the shed which Tony spent a couple hundred thousand converting while Harley was at school, had a gaping hole in the side. “You can stop the car here,” he said to the driver. Tony was opening the door before it had completely stopped and Peter was following suit. Tony would have to tell him not to repeat the dumbass things Tony did and follow the “Do as I say not as I do” code. 

“What happened?” Peter asked. He ran ahead of Tony to look into the destroyed garage. “Nothing’s been stolen.” 

“Harley happened. I knew the kid has a temper but damn, this is worse than I expected.” Tony moved past Peter into the pseudo-lab. He had done his best with the space he was given and built something he knew Harley could grow into. Harley had taken advantage of what Tony had given him. There were projects lining the walls, schematics, and ideas. There were missing pieces as though Harley had ripped them from their place on the wall in his haste to pack his life away and maybe he had. Harley lost everything in an instant. It wasn’t fair. “I’m going to call in someone to pack this up and bring it to New York. Go ahead and look around to see what we can take back today. Try not to break anything. I’m going to go find out what happened.” 

Tony heard Peter’s, “I won’t break anything.” as he walked back out the hole in the wall. He followed the driveway back to the main road, telling the driver to keep an eye on Peter as he walked by. Tony hadn’t met anyone else during his excursion in 2013 but from what Harley said the town seemed close to one another. If something happened to Harley then someone should know. 

He went left. They had come from the right and the only house nearby was a farm half a mile down the road. 

“Fri?” Tony said, tapping his glasses. 

The A.I. came to life. “Yes, boss?” 

“Give me a list of people who live within five miles of my location. I want to know who knows where Harley is and how I can find him.” 

“Sending the information to your phone. Need anything else?” 

The list was shorter than Tony imagined it would be but they were out in the middle of nowhere. The houses were further apart to allow space for the farms. “You still connected to Peter?” he asked. There were three houses down the path he was following. 

“Yes, boss.” 

“Patch him through. I want to know what he’s seeing and hearing.”

“Connected to Peter Parker.” 

“Kid, you hear me?” 

“Oh, hey Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark, this workshop is so cool. I mean, a lot of the cool stuff is missing but there are still some awesome pieces. This Harley kid took apart a mustang. Like, how cool is that?”

“Yeah, very cool. Anything that gives away a location?” 

“Not that I’ve seen but I got kinda distracted. He’s got a super nice computer but he took the hard drive out.” 

“The easiest way to transfer files when you’re on a time limit. I need you to get creative. Harley wasn’t expecting me to come. Obviously, I’ve been a shitty Mechanic who doesn’t know how to respond to letters. Kid probably didn’t leave anything out in the open so I’m gonna need you to do whatever weird detective work it is that you do.” 

“Got it, Mr. Stark, I won’t let you down.” 

“I know you won’t, but also don’t touch anything that looks like it’s going to explode.” 

The kid didn’t respond which would have been concerning if Tony wasn’t watching him through F.R.I.D.A.Y. Maybe that should have made it concerning considering Tony was watching climb up the walls and mess with things he shouldn’t be but Tony trusted Peter. Peter had shown himself to be more than trustworthy and Tony needed to stop hovering. He would let the kid do his thing for now, especially since Tony had a neighbor to question. 

Like Harley’s house, the neighbor, Kevin Wilkins, lived down a long dirt road at a house that looked like it belonged in a home and garden magazine. Tony hated it. It felt fake. 

He knocked on the door anyway because this was about Harley and Tony would do anything for his kids. 

Wilkins opened on the third knock. Tony figured there’d be some sort of shock for his sudden reappearance in Rose Hill, Wilkins just looked like he was expecting him. “Kid said you were coming.”

“Where is he?”

“Don’t know,” Wilkins said. “After his aunt left he went with the social worker. We ain’t heard from him since.”

“Do you know who the social worker was?” 

“She came from Nashville, that’s the most I can tell ya.” Tony sighed. “None of us believed him, ya know. He always swore up and down you came to town but no one could remember seeing you around.” 

“I tried to keep a low profile with the terrorist attacks.” 

“Harley’s a good kid. I don’t know what you pulled him into, but he idolizes you. Always said you’d come back for him, never gave up hope.”

 

“Well, I guess I came back too late.”

 

“Give him some time, he’ll reach out again.”

Tony had no doubt that he would but would he be too late again?

—

**JUNE 23, 2017**

“Did you seriously just hack into Stark Industries? Oh my lord, we are dead. We are going to be arrested. Kate, it was nice knowing you.” 

Kate laughed from her place on Harley’s bed. “Chill out, my dude. I rerouted our signal to Miami. Maybe. I don’t know if it actually worked. Guess we’ll find out if Tony Stark bursts down our door.” 

Harley spun around in his chair. “I can only imagine the look on Alice and Keith’s faces when Tony Stark comes for our lives.” 

“It’ll be great.”

“I don’t think it will. We’ll probably be murdered. Maybe Tony will get to us before they can.” 

“Stark’s not gonna kill us. He’s a good guy, remember? Good guys don’t kill orphans.”

“We can be the first orphans to die by a good guys hand.”

—

“Mr. Stark, your phone’s been buzzing for the past five minutes.” 

“It’s fine,” Tony said from under the Mustang. The phone stopped buzzing and then started back. “Or maybe it’s not. Who’s calling?” 

“Mr. Happy, sir.” 

“Answer it and tell him I’m busy.” 

“Oh, um, okay. What’s your-?” Peter didn’t get a chance to finish because the phone unlocked when he picked it up. “Oh, nevermind. I’ll just.” He pressed the answer. 

_“TONY WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY.”_ Peter held the phone away from his ear. 

“Hi, Mr. Happy, Tony’s busy right now.” 

_“Hi, Peter. Could you please hand the phone to Tony because we have a security breach in Stark Industries right now.”_

“Doesn’t Pepper run SI?”

_“She told me to call Tony. Security threats like this are his thing.”_

“Ah, well uh, hold on. Mr. Stark? Mr. Happy says it’s a security emergency.” 

“Tell Happy to handle it.” 

_“Tell Tony they’ve taken the files on the arc reactor.”_

“Mr. Stark? Happy says they’ve taken files on the arc reactor.” 

Tony slid himself out from under the car. “Arc reactor?” Peter nodded. “Tell Happy to send me the location. Come along, Parker. I think our tiny genius has just given himself away.” 

_“What’s Tony saying? Peter, hand him the phone. Peter?”_

Peter hung up. “What do you mean?” 

“Harley was building an Iron Man suit and unless he found a different power source he’d be needing an arc reactor. Have to say I’m impressed with how he got into the files. I’ll have to find out how he got around the encryption.”

“Um,” 

“This is exciting, kid. We’ve found Harley and he’s found us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive got plans but im not really rushing myself because i tend to get sloppy when i do that

**Author's Note:**

> i toyed with the idea of making the title more artsy but i like it straight and to the point
> 
> ive got a [discord](https://discord.gg/Pwah8sR), come hang out and listen to me complain about exams


End file.
